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Lot description
Solon Hannibal Borglum (American, 1868-1922) Sioux Indian Buffalo Dancer, conceived 1904, cast 1968 and later Bronze with reddish-brown patina 26-7/8 inches (68.3 cm) high Inscribed on base: Solon H. Borglum PROVENANCE: Private collection, New York. LITERATURE: P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, pp. 76, 79, pl. 74-5, another example illustrated; A.M. Davies, Solon H. Borglum: A Man Who Stands Alone, pp. 90, 275, no. 70, illustration of the original staff sculpture (as The Indian Dancer, fragment). Solon Borglum was an American-born sculptor renowned for his work in bronze and stone, much like his younger brother, Gutzon Borglum. He was born in Nebraska in 1868 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Paris to further his training. Best known for his monumental sculptures, including the head of Abraham Lincoln carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Borglum's work expresses the excitement and exuberance of life in the open, untamed West-- A life close to the wild beauty of nature, a life of freedom for both man and beast. His lifelong empathy and appreciation for Indian civilizations are exemplified in Sioux Indian Buffalo Dancer. Conceived in 1904 and cast by the artist's family posthumously, this noble figure is part of the artist's large and notable sculptural composition, Sioux Indian Buffalo Dancer, which was created as part of a series of four sculptures (with The Pioneer in a Storm, Cowboy at Rest, and Steps Toward Civilization) on the theme of civilization moving west. The present work demonstrates a dance performed by men of the Sioux tribe to send the life-sustaining buffalo to his people once more. Hooded and cloaked in a buffalo hide, a wiry medicine man, clad only in a breechcloth and moccasins, crouches to make a mighty leap, his body tight and coiled, and depicted mid-action. The four works were cast in staff (plaster mixed with straw) at life size and were prominently displayed in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Smaller casts of the figures were displayed at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, in 1905, and at the Panama-Pacific World's Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. HID01801242017